Department of Creative Writing

MFA Publications

Neil Aitken

MFA 2007
http://www.neil-aitken.com/

Publications

  • The Lost Country of Sight, poetry collection, Anhinga Press, 2008
  • "enumeration," poem, Ninth Letter Journal, 2008
  • "comment" poem, ReDactions (Issue 8/9) 
  • "Letter Fifty," poem DMQ Review, Spring/Summer 2007
  • Five poems in Completely Mixed Up: An Asian North American Mixed Race Anthology, 2007

Awards/Honors

  • The Lost Country of Sight, poetry, Anhinga Press 2008, selected as the winner of the Philip Levine Prize in Poetry
  • Two Pushcart nominations for poetry, 2007

Amalia Alvarez

MFA 2008 

Publications

  • "Linseed Oils Loosen and Spin", Caesura, The City University of New York, Staten Island literary journal
  • "If I Was Gonna..." poem, Cipactli, the Raza Studies Journal 2008

Interviews/Performances

  • Moe Green Poetry Hour, Guest Poet, www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/ Los Angeles, CA, March 1, 2009
  • Heron Studios Gallery Opening, Featured Poet, Aston, PA, November 14, 2008
  • University of California Davis, Chicano Popular Culture Course, May 15, 2008
  • Hip Hop Califest, UCR, Riverside, CA, April 30, 2008
  • San Bernardino Sun, San Bernardino, CA, April 29, 2008
  • Colorado State University Latina Empowerment Speaker Series, April 17, 2008 
  • UCR Chancellor's Office Arts Day, UCR ARTS Building, Riverside, CA, November 2007
  • Cinco De Mayo Festival, Cerritos College, Norwalk, CA, May 3, 2007

Awards/Honors

  • Second runner-up, poetry, "Is it Time Yet?", Hayden's Ferry Review Holiday Blog Contest; North Country Institute for Writers of Color, Tuition Fellowship, Brooklyn, NY July 11-13 2008 
  • University of California, Riverside, Gluck Fellowship Summer 2007 
  • University of California, Riverside, Tomas Rivera Fellowship 2006 
  • Browning Society Award for Dramatic Monologue, Honorable Mention for "Revolutionary Women Are More Beautiful," San Francisco, CA 2006

Vicki Barras Tulacro

MFA 2009 

Publications

  • "Roommates" & "Sever" Chaffey Review, Vol. II, May 2009 
  • "Inside Out", Chaffey Review, Vol. I, January 2009 
  • "Tingle" Semana de Mujer Journal, 2009 
  • "When There was Here" Pacific Review, Vol. 26, 2008 
  • "Inside Out" & "In One Act" Metamorphoses Anthology, Spring 2008 
  • "For Softer Skin" The Pacific Review Vol. 25, 2007
  • "Easter, 1990" Separation Anthology, Spring 2007

Bonnie Bolling

MFA 2010 
bonnieandclyd@hotmail.com

Publications 

  • Poetry in The Cortland Review, Rattle, Pearl, The Apple Valley Review, Poetic iversity

Awards/Honors

  • Donald Drury Award for both fiction and poetry
  • Finalist for The Rita Dove Poetry Prize

Sara Borjas

MFA

https://www.saraborjas.com/

Publications

Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff, 2019

Abbie Bosworth

MFA 2008

Productions

  • Glass Eye, short story in Crate, Spring 2006
  • Left Luggage, Production Finalist, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Cedar City, Utah, 2007

Awards/Honors

  • Gluck Fellowship for the Arts, Winter & Summer 2007

Sherry Brandon

MFA 2004
http://www.sherrybrandon.com

Publications

  • "The Cream-Colored Nightmare," Mosaic, 2002
  • "Sightless Light," Rhapsoidia, Issue 1, 2002
  • "Run Watcha Brung," Atomic Sandbox, comic book, 2005
  • "Roof Kitty," Atomic Sandbox, comic book, 2006
  • "SuperZeroes," (with Brian Compton), Atomic Sandbox, graphic novel, 2007

Productions

  • "Just What the Doctor Ordered." Playworks, UCR, 2001
  • "Go To Hell, Calvin Klein." Playworks, UCR, 2002
  • "I Am Jimmy." Playworks, 2004
  • "Lunchy Libre: A Sandwich Worth Fighting For," short film, 2006
  • "My 20s Took A Holiday and I Wasn't Invited," short documentary, 2007
  • "I Have a Korean Mother!" short film, 2007
  • "12.24.50" documentary, 2009

Interviews

  • "Acting on Issues: As playwrights, UCR students find their voices and express their concerns on stage." The Press-Enterprise, 08/18/2002

Awards/Honors

  • Maxell H. Gluck Fellowship in the Arts, 2003
  • Harry Lawton Award in Screenwriting, 2005

Angela Thompson-Brenchley

(publishing as A.N. Teibe)
MFA 2010 

Publications

  • "Hover & Grasp", Ekphrasis, forthcoming "Sightless Light," Rhapsoidia, Issue 1, 2002 
  • "In Memoriam of Myself", The Pacific Review
  • The Click of Degree", "Past the Edges", "wither, blossom, scatter", Metamorphoses
  • "Birds", "Focused", Separation
  • "Grandfather's Garden in Oil", "Alone", "Two Kinds of Waves", Muse
  • "After the Freeze", The Pacific Review
  • "Group Therapy", second place Utah State University Scholars Day Awards 

Interviews

Awards/Honors

  • Grant Recipient to attend Iowa Summer Writing Festival, 2006 & 2007

Ching-In Chen

MFA 2009 

Publications

  • The Heart's Traffic, novel in poems, Red Hen Press 2009 
  • Two poems in Yellow As Tumeric, Fragrant as Cloves anthology, Deep Bowl Press, 2009 
  • "The Sky's Full Contents," poem, Monday Night, 2009 
  • "The Origins of the Chinky Font", Hyphen Magazine (#16, Consumption) 
  • Two poems, Fifth Wednesday Journal, 2009 & 2008 
  • "With," poem, Iron Horse Literary review, 2008 
  • "Thousand Year Egg", Water~Stone Review, 2008
  • Four poems in Poemeleon, "Persona Poem"Issue, 2008
  • Three poems in OCHO 16 (print companion to MiPOesias) 2008
  • "Disjuncted Desert: some haibun," poem, Phantom Seed, 2008
  • "After Virginia Tech," poem, Capital Bookfest's Family Pictures
  • "It's a Bird, It's a Plane ... It's a Hindu Goddess?" non-fiction, Hyphen Magazine 2007
  • Four non-fiction pieces, Hyphen Magazine
  • "fob," poem, Trans issue of Tea Party 2007
  • "tale," poem, CRATE, 2007 
  • "Starfish 2," poem, Growing Up Girl: Voices from Marginalized Spaces, 2006

Online Publications

  • Two poems in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 2009
  • "Disciple," poem, Sunday Salon, 2009
  • Four poems in Poemeleon, "Persona Poem" Issue, 2008
  • "From New Orleans." Guest Blog for E. Ethelbert Miller's The E-Mag: A Sunday Kind of Love, 2006

Productions

  • Roundtable discussion and performance/reading, "Disrupting the Page: Hybridity & Asian American Poetics," Association of Asian American Studies Conference, 2009
  • The Geisha Interviews, regional finals, KCACTF Cauble's Corner/New Play Development 2009
  • We Will Not Be Moved: A Story of Oakland Chinatown, a film. 2004 

Awards/Honors

  • One Pushcart nomination for poetry, 2009
  • Scholarship Competition Winner, Writer Conferences and Center, Association of Writers and Writing Programs, 2007
  • Honorable Mention for "Two River Girls," Gival Press Oscar Wilde Award, 2007
  • Fellowship, Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Foundation, Fine Arts Work Center, 2007
  • Zora Neale Hurston Award Recipient, Naropa Summer Writing Program, 2006
  • 2nd place, "War," People Before Profit Poetry Prize, 2006

Mary Copeland

MFA 2007

Publications

  • Clocks We Watch, Plainview Press, 2008
  • Ovation Road, Plain View Press 2008
  • Poetry published in the following journals: Muse, Pudding, Arrowsmith, Pearl, The Pacific Review, Epicenter, The Sulphur River Review, Wednesday, Spillway and Left Behind.

Awards/Honors

  • Teaching Assistant of the Year, UC Riverside, 2006/2007 
  • Ina Coolbrith Poetry Prize, 2007 
  • Ocean Award, Second Place Poetry, 2005 
  • Cordell-Briggs Writing Award, (Poetry) Volume IX, Issue 1, 1995 
  • Society of American Pen Women, Honorable Mention, 1998

Kevin Cramer

MFA 2008

Productions

  • Bacciarelli (AKA The Bacciarelli Issue), stage play, Ruskin Group Theatre 2007, and UCR mainstage 2008
  • Searching for Mari, stage play, Pittsburgh New Works Festival, 2002
  • As far as Spokane, stage play, Bloomington, Indiana, 2004
  • Beartooth, stage play, Pittsburgh New Works Festival 2004; also produced at Outlaws Underground Theatre, State College, PA, 2005
  • Boom, stage play, Outlaws Underground Theatre, State College, PA, 2003, and as part of the Patriot Acts Festival at the Alliance Repertory Co., Burbank, CA, 2004

Interviews

Awards/Honors

  • Samuel Goldwyn Award 2007
  • Searching for Mari nominated for best playwright and best production at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, 2002
  • As far as Spokane, finalist, Reva Shiner full-length play contest, Bloomington, Indiana, 2004
  • Beartooth, stage play, nominated for best production, Pittsburgh New Works Festival, 2004

Rachelle Cruz

Publications

  • Experiencing Comics: An Introduction to Reading, Discussing, and Creating Comics, 2018
  • God's Will for Monsters, 2017 
  • Kuwento: Lost Things—An Anthology of New Philippine Myths, 2014

Alba Cruz-Hacker

MFA 2007

Publications

  • "How to Seal a Mouth," poem, Kaleidowhril Literary Journal, Winter 2008
  • No Honey for Wild Beasts, poetry collection, Plain View Press, 2008
  • Five poems selected for the "Senior Editor's Choice" of Poetry Magazine, Winter 2007

Awards/Honors

  • UC Riverside Poet Laureate Award, 2007 
  • Thomas Rivera Selection for Poetry, 2007 
  • Pushcart Prize Nominee

Kate Durbin

MFA 2008

Publications

  • The Ravenous Audience, poetry collection, Black Goat Press/Akashic Books, 2009
  • Amelia Earhart: Fragments Found in a 1937 Aviator's Boot (Poetry Chapbook; Dancing Girl Press, 2009) 
  • "Brief Crossing" (poem) in elimae 
  • "Unlearning to Read," "S&D", and "Captives" (poems) in diode 
  • "36 fillette" and "Sex is Comedy" (poems) in Drunken Boat 
  • "A Real Young Girl" (poem) in The Ledge 
  • "Swell" (poem) in Boxcar Poetry Review 
  • "Desgracia" and "Desert Fall" (poems) in Moondance 
  • Review of Karen Harryman's Auto Mechanic's Daughter in Boxcar Poetry Review 

Interviews

  • Interview with Gabriela Jauregui in Asian American Poetry and Writing 
  • Interview with Chris Abani in The Elegant Variation

Cristian Flores

MFA 2007

Publications

Awards/Honors

  • First runner-up for poetry in the Hayden's Ferry Review Holiday Blog Contest, for the coming-of-age poem, "Red Season" 
  • Clara Peretzman Scholarship for Immigrant Women, 2006

Cupid Flowers

MFA 2009 

Awards/Honors

  • First Place, "The Hands of Time," (the first ten pages), Hang 10 Screenwriting Contest

Holly Miller Gaglio

MFA 2009 

Publications

  • "Westbound," short story, Fresh Ink, December 2008

Awards/Honors

  • First prize, Fiction, Inland Empire California Writers Club 2008 Writing Contest

Cuca Esteves

MFA 2006

Productions

  • The Rise and Fall of Irvine Meadows West, documentary screened in Los Angeles at the Downtown and Indie Fest

Publications

2021

Article in the local Spanish magazine La Gaceta Holandesa, Dutch culture and news in Spanish

Several entries on the Desasosiegos section of Babab Cultura revista (online)

Two Poems, Dirty Poem and Yesterday, published in the first issue of PTMN.TEAU magazine, London.

2020

Cronicas Schevingeanas, published by Valparaiso Ediciones in their poetry collection.  I am translating it into English as The Scheveningen Chronicles.

Publication of a selection of poems from Cronicas Schevingeanas in the magazine El Nieuwe Aca

Publication of the article, Los modernos Dioses del Olimpo in FronteraD

2015

Publication of the children’s story Los Laberintos de Cleo with Las Meninas Cartoneras, Madrid.

2010

Publication of Domingo 29 de Marzo in El Coloquio de los Perros Number 27

Publication of Beatriz and El oráculo in Palabra Abierta Number 6

Publication of Contame tu vida in Resonancias.org Number 97

2009

Publication of Marta in Spanish in "The Barcelona Review" Number 69.

Publication of a selection of poems from Love Songs From the Desert written at the Joshua Tree Highlands Artist-in-Residence in July 2009 in the American Free Journal, Volume 30 Number 35

Interview with Alicia Kozameh in the Argentine Magazine "Generación Abierta a la Cultura" August 2009

2005

Publication of the story Marta (English) in Crate Magazine

Publication of the essay Life in 2030? (English) in Salty magazine

Publication of the poem Frasquitos in Naranjas y Nopales

2004

Publication of the story Mónica (Spanish) in the online magazine "Umbrales"

Adam Gallari

MFA 2009 

Publications

  • "Reading Rilke," short story, Ampersand Review, Spring 2009 
  • "Chasing Adnois," short story, anderbo.com, Fall 2008
  • "No Cause for Concern," short story, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Spring 2008

Awards/Honors

  • Nominated for a storysouth Million writers award

Molly Gross

MFA 2008
www.inlandtheatreworks.com

Productions

  • Shakespeare and the City (commissioned), stage play, The Fictitious Theatre Company, San Bernardino, CA, Summer 2007, mainstage production

Interviews

Awards/Honors

  • Graduate Division Fellowship, UC Riverside, 2006-07 
  • Inland Theatre League Award for performance, 2007 
  • Maxell H. Gluck Fellowship in the Arts, 2008 
  • FTC Inland Theatre Works 2008 "3D Theatre Festival" 2nd Place Prize for Best Original 10-Minute Play

Kaitlin (Kaite) Hillenbrand

MFA 2008

Publications

  • "Driving Away", Kestrel, expected 2009
  • "Siddhartha's Pinwheel", Kestrel, expected 2009 

Reviews

  • Review of David Tucker in Review Revue

Vanessa Hua

MFA 2009 
www.vanessahua.com

Publications

  • "The Art of Chinese Cooking," article, Newsweek, June 30, 2008
  • "For What They Shared," short story, River Styx, Fall 2008
  • "What We Have is What We Need," short story, American Literary Review, 2008
  • "The Responsibility of Deceit," short story, Cream City Review, fiction contest winner, 2006

Online publications

  • "Staking Claim," Fiction Attic; "Like Reyes," VerbSap; "Gone Wild" and "How to Lose Your Two Best Friends," Salt River Review; "Absence," Blood Orange Review

Awards/Honors

  • First prize, Atlantic Monthly fiction contest, 2008
  • Fiction contest winner 2006, Cream City Review, "The Responsibility of Deceit"
  • Honorable Mention, Stanford magazine fiction contest 2005, "Cruise Control"
  • 2006 James Madison Freedom of Information Award, Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California chapter
  • 2007 and 2008, Asian American Journalists Association, National Journalism Awards

Interviews

Paul Jacques

MFA 2009 

Productions

  • Mercury, Mars, and Mayhem, play, finalist in the Isis New Play Competition, 2008
  • Commissioned to write an adaptation of Frankenstein for Murrieta Repertory Theatre, 2008

Interviews

Awards/Honors

  • Two Inland Theatre League Award for performance, 2008

Gabriela Jauregui

MFA 2007
http://www.gabrielajauregui.net

Publications

  • Controlled Decay, poetry collection, Black Goat/Akashic Books, 2008
  • "Blood Sausage" (poem) published in Hayden's Ferry Review, special themed issue on The Grotesque, June 2008
  • "Apuntes on Orientalism in/and Latin American Literature: Darao, Tablada, Borges, Paz and Sarduy" (article) published in The Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, March-June issue, 2008
  • "Pull the Trigger!" article published in The Aesthetics of Risk: SoCCAS Symposium Vol. III (Welchman, John C. ed., JRP Ringier, 2008)
  • "Daniel Alarcon and Alex Espinoza" (interview) published in BOMB magazine (2008): http://bombsite.com/issues/0/articles/3072
  • Ball Game (novel excerpt) published in Guernica Magazine (guest edited by Francisco Goldman, October 2007): http://www.guernicamag.com/fiction/455/ball_game_a_novel_excerpt_1/
  • "Thoughts on Failure, Idealism, and Art: A Symposium" (interview) in Failure! Experimental Aesthetic and Social Practices. (Antebbi, Nicole, Dickey, Colin and Herbst, Robbie, eds., Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press, 2006)
  • "Necropolis: Exhuming the Works of Teresa Margolles" (article) published in: Muerte Sin Fin: Teresa Margolles Exhibition Catalogue (Distributed Art Publishers and Museum for Moderne Kunst and Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2004) 
  • "Eat it Alive and Swallow it Whole!: Re-savoring Cannibal Holocaust as a Mockumentary." (article) published in InVisible Culture (Issue no.7, University of Rochester, Winter 2004) 

Reviews and interviews

Awards.Honors

  • Soros New American Fellowship for 2007-08

Eva Konstantopoulos

MFA 2009 
http://www.evakonstantopoulos.blogspot.com

Publications

  • "We Are Daughters Of The Sun," Slab: Sound And Literary Art Book, Issue 2, Spring 2007
  • "Other is the Sky," lotus.zine, Volume 4, Spring 2007

Online Publications:

  • "You May Get Lost," Why Vandalism? Feb/March 2008 Double Issue
  • "Stranger Stranger," Storyglossia, Issue 25, December 2007
  • "A Borrowed Life," Word Riot, May 2007 Issue
  • "We Create Earth As We Sleep," Rumble, March 2007
  • "Joy," Rumble, March 2007
  • "Living in Hotels," Conte, Issue 1, May 2005

Awards/Honors

  • Circleframe Screenwriting Award for Best Screenplay, "The Virgin of Poughkeepsie," 2008 Gotham Screen International Film Festival

Rebecca O'Connor

MFA 2006
http://www.rebeccakoconnor.com

Publications

  • A Parrot for Life, Non-fiction book, TFH Publications, 2007
  • Lift, memoir, Red Hen Press (forthcoming; excerpts in Colorado Desert (The Coachella Valley) Anthology edited by Ruth Nolan,) Heyday Books, 2007
  • "Postcard from Above," article, West Magazine, December 2006
  • "Mercy," South Dakota Review, Summer 2006
  • How Should the World Respond to Natural Disasters? Non-fiction, At Issue Series, Greenhaven Press, 2006
  • Is There Life After Death? Non-fiction, At Issue Series, Greenhaven Press, 2005 
  • "Pantry Check," Los Angeles Times Magazine, November 2005
  • Uniquely Nevada, Non-fiction, Heinemann, 2004 
  • Acid Rain (Overview Series), Lucent Books, 2003 
  • Falcon's Return, Avalon Career Romance, June 2002

Interviews

Awards/Honors

  • Pushcart Prize Nominee 2007
  • The Albert and Elaine Borchard Fellowship to the Tomales Bay Writers' Workshops
  • The Carlisle Family Scholarship to the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley Workshops
  • Fellowship to the San Juan Writers' Workshops
  • McQuern Fellowship in Nonfiction at the University of California, Riverside

Briandaniel Oglesby

MFA 2009 

Publications

  • "Cabeza de Pedo" short story published in Gertrude, 2009 (Forthcoming)
  • "Family Kleenex (tm)," short story, ZZYZYVA Spring 2008

Productions

  • "Trainwhistles" selected to a have a reading in the SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL at the 2009 KCACTF National Festival, at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, April 13-18
  • Ninety-Nine Cents Plus, regional finals, KCACTF Cauble's Corner/New Play Development, 2009
  • Game, KCACTF regional finals, ten-minute play entry, 2008
  • Paris Park, Playwrights at the Loft in Redlands reading, 2008 
  • Starry Night, FTC Inland Theatre Works ten-minute play performance, 2008 
  • My Avisia Winger, Barnyard Theatre mainstage production, 2004 

Awards/Honors

  • Pushcart Prize Nomination

Victoria Patterson

MFA 2006
www.victoriapatterson.net

Publications

  • "The First and Second Time" short story in Freight Stories no. 5, March/April 2009 
  • "Winter Formal" short story in The Southern Review, Volume 45:1, Winter 2009
  • Drift, collection of short stories, Houghton Mifflin/Mariner Trade Back Original, 2009
  • "Johnny Hitman" short story in Santa Monica Review, Spring 2008
  • "The Rise and Fall of Fuzzy Fizziwig" short story in The Florida Review, Spring 2008
  • "Joe/Christina," short story, Snake Nation Review, 2007
  • "Sweet Rolls and Vodka," short story, The Sun, July 2006
  • "Parking Far Away," short story, Crate Magazine, 2006
  • "Thighs," short story, Quality Women's Fiction, 2005
  • "Baby Talk", "The Soccer Banner", "Morphine and Mother's Milk," short stories, Literary Mama 2001, 2002, 2003
  • "Morphine and Mother's Milk," HipMama, 1999

Interviews

Awards/Honors

  • The Abraham Polonsky Award in Fiction 2006
  • Thesis Fellowship for Spring/Summer 2006
  • Squaw Valley Scholarship, University of California, Riverside, 2006
  • Snake Nation Press Nonfiction Award, 2005
  • Gluck Fellowship, 2004, 2005
  • Dean's Fellowship Award, 2004, 2005

Natalie Rohwer

MFA 2009 

Publications

  • "Spilling the Beans," short story, Kalliope, 2007

Richard Sanchez

MFA 2008
http://www.richardasanchez.com/

Publications

  • "The Girl Next Door," short story, Tin House, Summer 2006
  • "Basketball Gods," short story, The Pacific Review, Spring 2005

Kandie St.Germaine-Kelly

MFA 2006

Publications

  • Closet Drama, poetry collection, Bear Star Press 2001
  • Poems published in over thirty literary magazines, including Arshile, The Sonora Review, Puerto del Sol, and Artful Dodge

Productions

  • Stage plays for youth, Dinner in Oz, A Midsummer Night's Teen, After Ever Happily, and Paper Umbrellas published by Eldridge Plays and Musicals 

Awards/Honors

  • California State University Creative Writing Program Award for Poetry

Valerie Stulman

MFA 2007

Productions

  • Costo, 10 minute play about Native American activists Rupert and Jeannette H. Costo, as part of Grier Living Histories, funded through the City of Riverside, CA, production expected Sept. 2008
  • One Final Moment, staged reading, one act play, new play development, The Performance Loft, Redlands, CA, May 14, 2008
  • Santa Angel, 10 minute play reading, new play development, Skylight Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, April 27, 2008
  • The Booth, staged reading, one-act play, new work development, Theatre 150, Ojai, CA, November 2007
  • Invited Production, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Region VIII  festival, Cedar City, Utah, February 2007
  • Incomplete Family, one-act play, Playworks, University of California, Riverside, June 2007
  • I Do, I Don't and Lunchtime Angel, original ten minute plays produced in Retracing the Declaration of Sentiments, Riverside Metropolitan Museum, February 2006

Online Publications

Interviews

  • Press Enterprise, Riverside, CA - Summer 2006, interviewed as part of article for Maxwell H. Gluck Inaugural Summer Camp for the Arts.

Awards/Honors

  • Semi-Finalist, (with John Shannon, MFA 2006) Disney/ABC TV Writers Fellowship competition, 2009
  • Animal Passion, Screenwriting Award, Riverside International Film Festival, 2008
  • The Booth, Best of Festival Award, one-act play, invited production, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Region VIII festival, Meritorious Recognition, Cedar City, Utah, February 2007
  • Hush Little Baby, Honorable Mention, 75th annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition, 2006, Television/Movie Script category
  • Triggers, Honorable Mention, 75th annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition, 2006, Playwriting category
  • Family Place, Semi-finalist, 2001, Chesterfield Screenwriting competition
  • Multiple Maxwell H. Gluck Graduate Fellowships, in Theatre, Department of Creative Writing/Writing for the Performing Arts, University of California, Riverside. Summer 2007, Fall 2006, Summer 2006, Spring 2006
  • Multiple Maxwell H. Gluck Graduate Teaching Fellowships, Theatre, University of California, Riverside. 2006-2008

Jessi Sundell

MFA 2008

Productions

  • A Little Angel Now, stage play, Barnyard Theatre, Davis CA, Summer 2008 mainstage production

Ky-Phong Tran

MFA 2007
www.frequentwind.com (writing)
www.aapw-la.org (magazine/arts organization)

Interviews

Awards/Honors

  • "I Will Love You More Than I Can" and "A Thing Called Exodus" Finalists for 2008 Short Story Contest from Hyphen Magazine/Asian American Writers' Workshop
  • Breadloaf Writer's Conference acceptances in 2007 and 2008 (Tution scholar finalist
  • Maxwell H. Gluck Fellowship in the Arts, UC Riverside, 2006
  • Rose/DeFillis Fiction Scholarship, Napa Valley Writers Conference, 2006
  • Fiction Scholarship, Wesleyan Writers Conference, 2006
  • Robert C. Byrd Scholarship, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, 2006
  • New America Media Award for Art, Sports, and Entertainment category, 2006
  • New America Media Award for Opinion-Editorial category, 2005
  • Fiction Scholarship, Voices of Our Nation Writers Conference, 2005
  • Graduate Division Fellowship, UC Riverside, 2005-06

Brenda Varda

MFA 2009 

Productions

  • Liquid, full-length, Unknown Theatre, Summer 2009 
  • What Pola Wants, one-act in L.A. Views, Company of Angels, 2009 
  • Things That Fall from the Sky, New Play Development Workshop, at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region VIII, 2009 
  • Cyberlilly Seven, media performance piece, UCIRA conference and Bootleg Theatre, 2008 
  • Fables du Theatre, full-length play,Unknown Theatre, 2008 
  • Jackalling, one-act in L.A. Views, Company of Angels, 2008
  • Insert Objections Here, play, Mid America Theatre Conference Fringe Festival, 2008
  • Things That Fall From the Sky, KCACTF National Playwriting Program ten-minute play regional finalist, 2009
  • American College Theatre Festival: play presentation -Two Chairs With Adam and Sophie,- 2008
  • Impossible Movies, EdgeFest Los Angeles - Writer/Performer, 2007 
  • Big Baby, Unknown Theater - One-Act Festival, 2006 
  • The Spanish Cafe, L.A. History Project - Writer/Co-director 
  • Multi-media theatre piece - produced by 24th Street Theatre

Papers

  • Comparative Dramatics Conference 2009
    • Fables du Theatre: Liminal Space, Narrative Disruption, Audience Reaction"
  • Mid America Theatre Conference 2009 (The Poor Theater)
    • "99-seats on 99-cents: the current state of small theatre in L.A." 
  • Comparative Dramatics Conference, Loyola Marymount, 2008
    • Collision or Collusion with the Audience in Collage Dance Theatre's C'Opera
  • (Dis) junctions, University of California, 2008
    • panel and series of creative presentations entitled: "Creative Writing Across Campus Divides: Writers in Collaboration with Academic Researchers"
  • Mid America Theatre Conference 2008 (Extreme Theatre symposium)
    • "Process and Participation: Models from the Social Sciences for Collaborative and Devised Theatre (pedagogy)"
    • "Extreme Collaboration in Devised Work for Small Theatre: Creating Viable Processes with Limited Resources (directing),
    • "Postdramatic Theatre in the L.A. Police Academy: Collage Dance Theatre's C'Opera", (MATC academic journal review)

Awards/Honors

  • KCACTF John Cauble National Playwriting Finalist, 2009 
  • Gluck Fellowship in the Arts, 2009
  • Mellon Workshop grant - Convergence of Cultures: Scientific Realms and Creative Production, 2008
  • UCR Humanities Fellowship, 2008 
  • Gluck Fellowship in the Arts, 2008 
  • Edge Fest Los Angeles, New Works Festival, 2007 Impossible Movies
  • Los Angeles Conservancy, Performance Grant, Wilshire Words, 2005 
  • Los Angeles History Project, Performance Grant, 2005, The Spanish Cafe

Alexis Vergalla 

MFA 2008
www.alexisv.wordpress.com

Publications

  • "Letters Through Glass", Finishing Line Press, 2009
  • "Issues of Translation," "Letter to Vallejo," "On Hearing an Uncertainty," poetry, Plankton Magazine, Vol 1, Summer 2007
  • "The Way Things Disappear," poem, Damselfly Press, Winter 2008
  • "Rusalka," poem, forthcoming, Tales of the Unanticipated
  • "The Wolf and the Girl," poem, forthcoming, Goblin Fruit
  • "The Translucent Nature of Irises," poetry sequence, Diode Poetry Online, Winter 2007
  • "At the Zoo," poem, Eclectica Magazine, Vol 5 N 4, Oct/Nov 2001

Interviews

Mariah Young

MFA 2008

  • Squaw Valley Writing Workshop, 2008